[Illustration: Early Norman Window, Darent Church, Kent, with incipient
zig-zag moulding.]

Q. What kinds of piers were the Norman piers?

A. Early in the style they were (with some exceptions, as in the crypts
beneath the cathedrals of Canterbury and Worcester) very massive, and the
generality plain and cylindrical; though sometimes they were square, which
was indeed the most ancient shape; sometimes they appear with rectangular
nooks or recesses; and, in large churches, Norman piers had frequently one
or more semicylindrical pier-shafts attached, disposed either in nooks or
on the face of the pier. We sometimes meet with octagonal piers, as in the
cathedrals of Oxford and Peterborough, the conventual church at Ely, and
in the ruined church of Buildwas Abbey, Salop; and also, though rarely,
with piers covered with spiral flutings, as one is in Norwich Cathedral;
with the spiral cable moulding, as one is in the crypt of Canterbury
Cathedral; and encircled with a spiral band, as one appears in the ruined
chapel at Orford, in Suffolk; sometimes, also, they appear covered with
ornamental mouldings. Late in the style the piers assume a greater
lightness in appearance, and are sometimes clustered and banded round with
mouldings, and approximate in design those of a subsequent style.

Q. How are the capitals distinguished?

A. The general outline and shape of the Norman capital is that of a square
cubical mass, having the lower part rounded off with a contour resembling
that of an ovolo moulding; the face on each side of the upper part of the
capital is flat, and it is often separated from the lower part by an
escalloped edge; and where such division is formed by more than one
escallop, the lower part is channelled between each, and the spaces below
the escalloped edges are worked or moulded so as to resemble inverted and
truncated semicones.

[Illustration: Norman Capital, Steetley Church, Derbyshire.]

Besides the plain capital thus described, of which instances with the
single escalloped edge occur in the crypts beneath the cathedrals of
Canterbury, Winchester, and Worcester, and with a series of escalloped
edges, or what would be heraldically termed _invected_, in many of the
capitals of the Norman piers in Norwich Cathedral, an extreme variety of
design in ornamental accessories prevail, the general form and outline of
the capital being preserved; and some exhibit imitations of the Ionic
volute and Corinthian acanth